ComicsPundit

STOP THE PRESSES!!! No, seriously. Stop them. The digital age of comics may begin shortly.

2009-10-21T18:26:09Z

There is bubbling speculation that could be the herald of the next great age of comics.

The Chicago Sun-Time's tech columnist, Andy Ihnatko (who's a fellow comic book geek), pieces together clues that suggest the seemingly mythical Apple tablet computer may be on the horizon, and will have support for digital comics downloads. Revolutionizing digital comics the same way that Apple did for digital music.

From Andy's Sun-Times column:

Apple’s upcoming tablet computer (whoops, “rumored” upcoming tablet) just got a little more interesting: there are signs that the company is getting into the digital comic book market.

Which is tantamount to saying “Apple is helping to create a digital comic book market.”

The key to this is an existing digital comics outfit, LongBox, who may have a relationship with Apple much like how Audible.com does with them, providing audiobooks for the iTunes media store.

There has been the Golden Age, the Silver Age, theres various names for periods in recent comics history. The starting and ending dates of all of them are subject to some debate.

But if this comes to pass, there will be no question about the dawn of the Silicon Age of comics, when Apple releases a device that will become the iTunes/iPod of comics.

This article is must reading for comics fans. Read it now.

As an aside, the goal here for Apple is much like what they have done with other technologies. They arrive late to the party, but they take whats been done before and blow it completely out of the water.

This would be the "Kindle Killer". Apple will trump all other book reading devices by having superior resolution and color. Comics will be merely the way Apple proves that their device would be superior. Existing devices are greyscale and low resolution, and aren't suited to comics, which demand greater resolution and color depth.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple isn't also lining up publishers of magazines that use lots of photography and graphics.

I dismissed most Apple tablet rumors in the past as Apple fanboys spinning fantastic tales. Most such rumors are. But Andy's better than the rumor mongers, and clearly divides facts from speculation, but uses facts to support his suppositions. I trust him as a journalist.

So now I'm caught up in this Tablet speculation too. I used to think that any such

The real reason for the 24 hour limit on Green Lantern's ring charges.

2009-09-29T09:22:24Z

FuturePundit: "Doing Tasks Depletes Willpower: Most of us only have a finite supply of willpower."

via Instapundit

Real World Amazons: The Wonder Women of the Ukraine

2009-09-28T11:22:03Z

The Planet has a photo essay about a true life Amazons in eastern Europe. It sounds like a group where Wonder Woman would feel right at home.

From Jenna Martin's introduction:

In the Ukraine, a country where females are victims of sexual trafficking and gender oppression, a new tribe of empowered women is emerging. Calling themselves the “Asgarda”, the women seek complete autonomy from men. Residing in the Carpathian Mountains, the tribe is comprised of 150 women of varying ages, primarily students...

... Reviving the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology, the Asgarda train in martial arts, taught by former Soviet karate master, Volodymyr Stepanovytch, and learn life skills and sciences in order to become ideal women.

The Asgarda also have a website, where one page in English describes their history and teachings.

via Jenna Wakeman at The Frisky and Instapundit.

The Bizarro Administration

2009-09-27T18:12:09Z

It are make imperfect nonsense.

At Bookworm Room:

the American version of Bizarro World, our friends (England, Israel, etc.) are our enemies. Our active enemies and those countries that are merely passively hostile to us (North Korea, Iran, Castro, Venezuela, etc.) are the ones to whom we pay homage. Our cooling planet is a warming planet. The UN, one of the most corrupt organizations in the world, is the world’s only hope for peace. The way to cure the nation’s vast deficit is to incur more debt. Disarmament protects us. The only democratic nation in the Middle East is a Nazi country. Putting women in hijabs frees them.

via Instapundit

This looks like a job for Toastmasters...

2009-09-16T05:53:05Z

After the Pats beat the Buffalo Bills on Monday night, I really shouldn't kick one of their players while they're down. But it's just too tempting

Ellis, if you're reading this, there's plenty of places where you can get help for this habit.

Maine's "Public Option" was a flop.

2009-09-12T23:46:06Z

"As Maine goes, so goes the nation"?

In this case, I hope not.

David Freddoso examines how Maine's public option plan, DirigoChoice, failed to reduce the number of uninsured, failed to reduce the cost of health care, but succeeded in driving up insurance rates for everyone.

Over the next five years, Dirigo would collect premiums and dole out subsidies, for net revenues of $109 million. Taxpayers and insurers kicked in in $155 million more. As of May 2009, Maine had spent about $317 million on Dirigo, including the start-up money.

The result: About 3,400 previously uninsured Mainers are insured today with Dirigo. That's $93,000 for each newly insured person. The percentage of uninsured Mainers remains right where it was when Dirigo started: 10 percent. A large majority of those who switched to Dirigo – 64 percent – dropped their private insurance and switched to the subsidized “public option.”
Dirigo's enrollment numbers had never approached expectations, but they have plummeted recently because the program is no longer a good deal. The expected cost-reductions never materialized, so premiums had to be ratcheted up by 74 percent in five years.

Read the whole thing, it shows the flaws in much of what is being proposed at the national level.

via Megan McArdle

Whoa, indeed.

2009-09-07T11:09:14Z

Kevin Drum:

When the fire chief of Jericho, Arkansas, finally got fed up and went to court a few days ago to challenge his second traffic ticket in as many days, the town's entire 7-man police force showed up for the hearing. And then shot him.
Seriously.

Discovered via Megan McArdle, who simply comments,

Whoa!

Daring Fireball on WordPress malware attacks.

2009-09-06T23:45:40Z

John Gruber at Daring Fireball:

I fully acknowledge that there is much to be gained by running your own copy of WordPress. But clearly there is a price: constant vigilance.

I like the little allusion to the famous quote from 19th century abolitionist, Wendell Phillips

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty"

In this case liberty is running your own blog server.

Fortunately I'm in the same situation as Gruber, running a Movable Type system, so I've avoided the current unpleasantness that Andy Ihnatko is going through.

Andy doesn't have quite as grand a historical reference as Gruber, but he does clearly communicate the situation he's in.

*@&$, #%@&, &%%, Damn!

My use of a commonplace book to get more out of my reading and writing.

2009-09-06T20:42:06Z

From Self Made Scholar: Project: Start a Commonplace Book

What is a Commonplace Book?

A commonplace book is essentially a scrapbook / compilation of information that the creator deems relevant. Commonplace books became popular with thinkers in 15th century England and were eventually promoted as a scholarly tool by major universities such as Yale and Harvard.

Creating a commonplace book can help you keep track of your educational journey. It’s a place to record favorite quotes from the books you read, ideas you have, and questions that arise from your studies.

In my attempts at blogging, I've been bookmarking tons of stuff that gets lost around the various methods of doing so. I rarely get down to blogging or even posting links.

I have the cop out of the list of "things I want to blog about" in the sidebar, but that's only for items I've marked using del.icio.us. Not ideal and still a cop out.

Inspired by the blog post linked above, I've created a text file version of the commonplace notebook (though I am using a journal as a paper version for when I don't have access to my computer.)

In this book there are links and excerpts form stuff that strikes my fancy, wether or not I blog about it, as it allows me to review my thoughts. I'm using the commonplace book as more than just a scrapbook. It's also a place I put down random notes and crude writing. Sort of a first draft for nothing in particular, or to use comic book issue numbering as a metaphor, one could call it the 0th draft.

The key is to actually review things once in a while and convert notes into projects for writing, research, or just to jog my memory about what I've done in the past.

So far it's been a good repository for random ideas, but I've yet to keep up with using it consistently, and even less so in reviewing it.

Reading too much into fashion.

2009-08-17T04:12:28Z

I love seeing politics overlap with the culture at large, but Robin Givahn of the Washington Post has time and again tried to merge fashion critique with political analysis, and looked completely silly in the process. Her latest column "Dressing Down (In More Ways Than One)" is no exception.

She tries to put social and political significance on how dressed down so many of the Town Hall attendees are, as if people give thought to the political message they are giving by their dress.

Heck, if any thought was given to wardrobe, it was earlier criticism of protesters for being too well dressed that caused it. Pro-government advocates, mocked protesters by using the fact that some were in suits to claim that they weren't 'real' protesters, but industry plants. The "Brooks Brothers Brigade," was the what they were called. Now apparently they are crude angry people who can't dress well.

The other side of the equation is also over-thought. The idea of representatives saying "I'm the boss of you," by showing up in suits themselves is over the top. Many politicians do show up in more casual garb, others don't at public meetings. But a politician in a suit is not sending a message of dominance.

If I were Bob Woodward, I'd be asking the style section editors to stay out of political analysis, his turf. It reflects badly on the paper's more serious work.

One Year Later: George W. Bush as the Joker

2009-08-04T22:55:49Z

Apparently there are no original ideas.

The full-sized art by Drew Friedman is at Vanity Fair.

via Drudge, via Alhouse

Reactions to the Obama/Joker poster

2009-08-04T15:49:40Z

The Obama/Joker posters have drawn criticism from Obama supporters, as mean spirited and/or racist.

How is the Joker depiction racist? Unless one mistakes the Joker makeup to be a photo negative version of blackface, the racism claim is just a disingenuous argument that any critique of Obama is inherently racist.

As to the mean spirited part. It is mocking the president, but not anything all that bad. It's not like the real hotheads who make up posters depicting or encouraging a political figure's assassination, or some other act of violence (of which, sadly, there have been too many of).

Instapundit has rounded up a few links to articles about these criticisms.

My favorite is Jim Treacher's funny rewriting of Batman's interrogation of the Joker. I can see the Joker trying that.

Posters in L.A. depict Obama as the Joker

2009-08-02T20:53:00Z

Seen in L.A.:

Best proposed tiles from the comments thread at the NewsBusters post about this:

From "metaphorsbwithu':

"'Robin' Peter to Pay Paul"…

Or… "how to go from boy wonder to joker in six months."

And my favorite from E. Carl White:

Why So Stimulus?

via Tammy Bruce, viaNewsBusters, via Instapundit

Ann Althouse and the Maine Lobster Festival

2009-07-30T06:08:41Z

Ann Althouse discovered that the first few posts of the day contained some reference to lobsters, and made a theme out of it for the day.

She then googled "lobster" and discovered that today was the first day of the Maine Lobster Festival here in Rockland. Serendipity was on a roll today.

Here's Althouse's lobster themed posts.

And here's her specific post about the Maine Lobster Festival. Along with some interesting and fun discussion in the comments, in which mine appear towards the end.

Oh. My. God!!!

2009-07-28T22:56:32Z

Andy Ihnatko indulges in some Comic-Con based Rule 5 blogging too.